Minutes of the Scottish Region ACB AGM, 2006
Wednesday 22nd March 2006
St John’s Hospital, Livingston

1.    Apologies for absence
       These were received from Richard Spooner, Alasdair McBain, Jacqueline McGuire and Bill Simpson.

2.    Minutes of the previous meeting
       These had been previously circulated and were agreed as a correct record.

3.    Matters arising
       There were no matters arising that would not be dealt with under the current agenda.

4.   Chairman’s report
       Janet Tilman tabled a Chairman’s report. She highlighted a number of things including the high standard        of the

       scientific meetings  over   the  previous  year,  and  she thanked the hosts of these meetings. The John King    

       Award  for the best  presentation by  a  trainee  biochemist during  the  past  year  was  presented to Dr Leigh     

       Campbell  for  her  paper  “Synergistic protection of human endothelial cells from oxidative stress by selenium and 

       sulforaphane supplementation”. A supply of King chess pieces had now become available so she was also able to

       belatedly present these to Susan Knox and to Colleen Ross for previous years.

       She announced the institution of a John Paterson Award in memory of John Paterson. This will be an award of     

       £500 towards the costs of an MRCPath project. Applications are requested by January 2007 and the award 

       will be made at the AGM in 2007.

       Finally, she drew the membership’s attention to the continuing progress with the website and thanked Joy

       Johnstone for all her contributions towards this.

5.    Report from Regional Member of Council
       Dennis O’Reilly reported on the main issues considered by council in the past year. There are many things

       happening nationally that the ACB does not know about or finds out about too late to influence so there has been

       discussion about appointing a government adviser or public relations adviser. There is some disquiet about this since

       supporting such an individual, and associated activities, will be expensive and there are anxieties about the balance   

       between these costs and the likely benefits.

       There has been discussion around the structure of regional committee including the size of these committees

       and whether there should be more representation on Council, as small groups of people tend to be repeatedly 

       involved. There was a suggestion that it might be appropriate to have more representatives from the regions on

       council, with one being a more junior individual earlier on in their career.

       The ACB President (Chris Price) has been influential in devising a course in evidence-based laboratory medicine to        be held shortly in Oxford. This is advertised in the current Newssheet and will cost £765 plus accommodation. He         feels that appropriate individuals to attend this course would be younger people (i.e. less than 50) who are fully        

       committed to the profession (i.e. not Grade A trainees). Ideally, he feels that there should be a ratio of two clinical  

       scientists to one medic.

6.    Report from Regional Member of the Federation of Clinical Scientists
       A report from Richard Spooner was tabled.

7.    Report from Regional Treasurer
       The Treasurer’s report was tabled. Frank Finlay discussed this and described the main features of the account. We

       have a surplus of £1,600 for the year but there are a number of costs still coming in. The overall surplus is healthy

       and this is at least in part due to the hard work of meetings organisers in attracting sponsorships to cover the costs

       of the meetings. He extended thanks to Dr Alistair Glen for auditing the accounts.

8.    Report from Trainee Committee Members
       A trainee’s report was tabled. Neil Squires ran through the main issues that have been considered by the trainees in

       the past year. These include continuing anxieties about the major discrepancies in progress on Agenda for Change

       between different parts of the country. There has also been discussion regarding the gender bias in the profession. It

       has also been drawn to the attention of trainees that Grade B posts are not necessarily advertised nationally.

9.    Report from Regional Tutor
       A report was tabled and Mike Wallace covered the main issues. There has been a very high calibre of trainees

       appointed recently and, as a consequence of this, most Grade A’s are obtaining higher specialist training posts well

       before the end of their contracts. Three more trainees will be appointed next month. NSD has recognised Annexe

       U. The ACB is reviewing available MSc courses including the Guildford course, with a recommendation that there

       should be more involvement from people within the profession. Scotland has been asked to host a 2009 Training

       Course, and the 2006 course is about to start. Finally, he acknowledged the enormous contribution to Clinical

       Biochemistry training within Scotland from Callum Fraser over recent years. On Callum’s retirement the Trainee

       Scheme will continue to be administered by Tayside.

10.   Report from the Audit Co-ordinator
       The report from the Audit Group was tabled and discussed by Anne Pollock. There has been rather less activity 

        than in previous years, but audit is adopting an increased profile on a national basis with the National Audit

       Committee becoming more formalised. The precise effects of this at local level will need to be awaited. There is a

       National Audit website accessible via the ACB website and a certain amount of information is already there but this

       website is still in its early stages. The Scottish Regional Committee has agreed to provide funding for travel expenses

       for the Audit Group meetings, which will facilitate these meetings being truly Scotland-wide. Finally, she thanked

       everybody for their input into the audit that has been done. Janet Tilman thanked Anne for all of her commitment to

       the Scottish Audit Group in recent years.

       In discussion, eGFR was raised. Simon Walker spoke briefly about this, summarising that there were pressures to        deliver the eGFR that have come from the GMS contract, diabetologists, the NSF in England and the Scottish 

       Executive here in Scotland. Liaison between members of the ACB Committee and renal physicians has proved very

       helpful and this liaison will continue. A document summarising recommendations has been made available and has

       been modified in the light of feedback received. It will be made widely available by being put on the ACB website.

       Anne will email all departments to make it clear that the committee is now endorsing these recommendations.

       Graham Ellis raised the query around the F-factor link with NEQAS. This is not yet available but is designed to

       ensure that there is national consistency in eGFR even where differences in creatinine methods exist. Peter Galloway

      commented on the financial implications and the difficulties that arise when there is national rather than local 

       negotiation.

11.   Report from Clinical Practice Section
       A report on the activities of this section was tabled and David Preiss briefly summarised the main issues and 

       reported back from a meeting held the previous day. The Clinical Practice Section has been developing fast, with

      the first year largely devoted to setting up the structure with the expectation that there will now be a lot more

       progress on some of the issues raised.

12.  Membership of the Regional Committee
       Dennis O’Reilly (Regional Member of Council), Anne Pollock (Audit) and Neil McConnell (Member of Greater 

       Glasgow) are all stepping down. The committee proposes that Anne Pollock should become the Regional Member

       of Council and that Karen Smith should become the Audit Chair. Other nominations were invited from the floor but

       there were none forthcoming. If no further nominations for these positions are received within the next short while

       these posts will be ratified by the committee. Neil McConnell will canvas opinion in Greater Glasgow for a

       replacement member for Greater Glasgow and the constituency can be circulated requesting nominations.

13.   Future scientific meetings
        Summer 2006 (21st June) - Perth – Members’ Papers.
        Autumn 2006 – Stirling – Calcium.
        Spring 2007 – Kirkcaldy – Clinical Biochemistry in Acute Medicine.
        Summer 2007 – Wishaw – Members Papers.

14.   AOCB
        Nothing raised.

15.   Date of next Meeting
        March 2007, to coincide with Spring meeting in Kirkcaldy.